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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  10. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  13. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  14. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. cold — an illness
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. clip — to cut
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. game — wild animals
  7. cold — not warm
  8. file — a tool
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. leaves — lets stay
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. mouse — for a computer
  13. mouse — the animal
  14. leaves — to go away
  15. hand — help
  16. clip — a video
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. file — a document
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. hand — in cards
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. clip — for paper
  23. file — a line of people
  24. game — a match

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com